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Outside the church, the air was brisk and salty. I pulled my heavy sweater closer to my chest and looked up at the sky for an answer.
Darcy was next to me checking her cell phone. After noticing that she didn’t have any messages, she closed it and turned to me.
“Listen, Val. I understand what you mean about belief, but I don’t have any belief. I can’t just pull it out of the thin air.”
I let out a sarcastic huff and nodded. “You’re preaching to the choir, Darcy. I know what you mean. Developing belief is about knowing who you are and what you’re capable of doing. It’s like faith, you know, it’s like belief.”
“Faith?” she quipped. “No, I don’t think faith is the same as belief.”
I let out a deep breath and looked to the sky for the best way to explain this. “Well,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “I know that the masters would argue that belief and faith are separate paradigms, but I’d argue that they’re one and the same.”
“How?” she said, looking at me curiously. “Explain how belief and faith are the same?”
I turned away from the front of the church and looked across the parking lot at the Atlantic Ocean. “Let’s go over to the water. I want to show you something.”
As we got up to the entrance of the beach, I said, “Do you see the beach?” I pointed across the dramatic expanse.
She gave me a curious smirk. “Of course, I see it,” she said.
“When you’re away from the beach, do you know that it still exists?”
She nodded. “Yes, of course, I do.”
“So, then, by the fact that you’ve seen the beach many times in your life, you have a firm belief that it exists, correct?”
Again, she nodded. “Yeah, I know without a shred of doubt.”
“If I ask you, ‘Would the ocean be here tomorrow?’ what would you say?”
She looked out into the sea and said, “Yes, of course it would.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked.
She gave a non-committing shrug. “Because I know. I’ve seen it hundreds of times, and I know it exists.”
“So, then, not only do you believe it, you know it, and you trust that it will be there. And you know it will be there tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that. You have faith that it will, right?”
Again, she looked at me as though I was giving her a trick question and nodded. “Ah, I see where you’re going with this. To answer you, yes, I do have faith. I have belief. Are you saying they are interchangeable?”
“Yep, that’s what I’m saying. The Bible’s definition of faith goes something like this, ‘Faith is the evidence of that which is not seen’. But, what I’m saying is in order to have faith, belief must be established prior to it. When you were growing up, you probably had it pounded into your head that God exists. You never saw God, but because it was pounded into your head, you came to believe in Him, even though you’ve never experienced Him firsthand. So when something good happens, you and your parents say, ‘Praise God’ for the miracle. The miracle then becomes the evidence or the product of that which you couldn’t see. And you say that you have faith.
“You were brainwashed into believing in something that you’ve never seen or felt. You can call it faith or you can call it a belief. For me, it’s all about knowing. And you can’t truly believe if you don’t know. You have seen the ocean. And by seeing it, you believe it’s there. And you have trust that it will be there tomorrow, even though you probably won’t see it tomorrow. So you could say that you have belief or faith that the ocean will be here tomorrow, right? Aren’t they then interchangeable?”
“Yes, they are. You make a really good point.”
“Look, Darcy. For me, belief is something that can change. One day you can believe in the goodness of people but that could change if someone hurts you. You could also believe in God until something goes wrong and He doesn’t come through for you, like what happened to me. As you grow and experience life’s lessons, what doesn’t suit you will be eliminated from your belief system. And that is perfectly fine. Belief is established when you want something to happen and it happens. And if you put your faith in a person who you’ve trusted and whom you know you can count on, aren’t you really saying that you believe without a doubt that that person will always be there for you, even if you don’t always see proof of them being around?
“So, then, what’s the difference between the two? When you have faith, you believe in something; when you believe, you have faith in it. My question is how does a person have a true belief in anything if they haven’t established witnessing the first cause? Unshakeable belief is established after you’ve witnessed the first cause. Faith and belief stem from the first experience of that in question.”
“Gosh, Val, you’re right. I never thought of it like that. You really gave me something to think about. There isn’t any difference.”
“Well, there isn’t, but when someone comes along and tells you to put your faith in that which you have never seen, how do you do that?”
She threw her hands in the air and bobbed her head. “Thank you! That’s what I’m trying to say. How can I believe in something that I’ve never seen or heard?”
I smiled and said, “You don’t, not at this stage of your life, not without investigating it.”
“And how do you do that?” she said, once again throwing her arms over her head in total frustration.
“By asking God to show you, that’s how.”
“Okay, you have to back up a minute. Explain this to me.”
Through an exasperated breath I said, “Darcy, listen. Before I made my connection, I didn’t believe in anything—not spirits, not ghosts, and not even God. Then I had a very desperate moment, and I begged for proof. I begged for something to believe in. Because let’s face it—many humans say they have belief—they say they have faith, but deep down, they don’t. Right?”
“Well, I always believed in God,” she said.
“Oh really? Why? Because you went to Catholic school and your parents believed in God? Because you had it drilled into your head from the time you were old enough to speak? Because you were brainwashed into having the faith that something existed without seeing it? Then throughout your life when you called on that which you had never seen, and it didn’t answer you, it rattled your faith? Right now, right this very minute, prove to me that God exists. Tell me something, tell me anything, that makes you have the faith in His existence.”
She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes and looked at me with suspicion. “This is another trick question, isn’t it?” she chortled.
I shrugged.
She let out a deep breath and nodded, taking on the challenge. “Well,” she began, “I know that God exists. That’s without a doubt.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I just know.”
“But how do you know?” I pressed. “Where is God? Have you had any experiences with God where you can claim, as fact, that your proof or evidence of His existence came from Him? What makes you know this?”
Suddenly her smile went taut, and her eyes turned glassy, and without warning, tears filled her eyes. “Darcy, don’t cry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you this upset.”
Her tears were now falling down her cheeks, and she just let them. “Val, I don’t have an answer and I don’t know. And to be honest, there have been many times when I doubted God’s existence but felt guilty for doing so. You’re right. I can’t prove it. I don’t have that deep unwavering knowingness. I don’t have total belief. I guess I don’t have faith.”
I gave a sympathetic shrug and a small smile. “But I do,” I said. “And I didn’t just get it by having it pounded into my freakin’ head. I got it by asking for it. I got it by going within and seeking it. I asked, and I received. And that’s how I got my proof of that which I can’t see. That’s how I got my faith.”
She pulled both sleeves of her light jacket over her hands and wiped her face. “Teach me,” she said. “I want to know more.”
“Teach you?” I repeated.
I looked back to the ocean and asked myself, Am I the one to do this? And I heard, Yes, you are.

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Yesterday, I wrote about how I suffered through my first heartbreak. Looking back on the experience, I can see things from a learning perspective. Back then, I was just a young girl, beginning my journey into life. I was new. Pure. Untouched. Unspoiled. But living life does something to one’s persona. When you get cheated on, or betrayed or lied to, it takes away the happy–it takes away the innocense, and leaves hard-core cynics who live in mistrust and fear. Life has a way of working its lessons, doesn’t it? One day we’re wearing shit-eating grins, and the next day we’re crying over some guy who didn’t call.

But here’s the thing: why do we let ourselves get hurt, over and over again? I know we’re not stupid people. We have it going on, don’t we? We’re hip to it, clever, too old for the chomp, and yet, we still make the same freakin’ mistakes; as if we’re robots stuck on STUPID mode. But, why?

Why do we go with the wrong men? What is it about the badboy that attracts us?

Now, before you say that you’re not attracted to the badboy, let me define what badboy means to me. To me, a badboy is a guy who we can’t stay away from. He’s cute, funny, smart, you know, he has the whole package. The reason I call him a badboy isn’t because he’s out in the world committing crimes or riding a Harley with the Angels, wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. Nope. He’s a badboy because there’s something about him that hits an emotional trigger within us; a trigger that could bring us to our knees, if we let it. What’s the trigger? It’s our fathers.

Please don’t say, eeeww, because I’m not talking about sex here. I’m talking about a trait that mimics something we equate with love and security–even in father-daughter relationships that weren’t good. We somehow make an emotional link to the badboy if there’s something about him that subconsciously reminds us of our fathers. So this guy is good to go, right? Wrong.

Wrong? Yes, wrong. Why? Because these traits are only mimics of the man who raised you. The badboy is just a guy who has his own values and beliefs. He’s not your father; he’s only a trigger. He’s got his own agenda which may be good or not so good. He may look like dad, walk like dad, talk like dad, but he ain’t dad. He’s a badboy who reminds you of dad, and this, all by itself, keeps you attracted to him.

Now this guy may come off like the greatest catch, and because of it, you find yourself hopelessly in love—to the point where he can do no wrong, until he does something wrong. You find out he cheated. Can’t be. He was perfect in every way. But the truth is, you wanted to believe he was perfect because he reminded you of dad. What now? How do you get past his betrayal? You want to believe he’s innocent. You’re even willing to give him another chance, if his story seems credible. But the story doesn’t hold water. He tricked you. Eventually, he’s gone.

What do you do now? If you don’t understand what attracted you to this guy you’ll end up going after another guy just like him. You’ll find another daddy-badboy and repeat the process all over again. So how do you break the pattern of going after the badboy?

You have to sit down and examine the attraction. Examine his traits. Think them through. Then ask yourself this: am I equating this guy with my father? It’ll be tough to answer because you may not want to admit it, but trust me, if you do this, you won’t make the same mistake again.

Girls. I hate to say this, but it’s horrible when big girls cry. Isn’t it time to put an end to it?

Why the calendar with my name written across it? To remind me that every day of the week, of every day of my life, it’s about fulfilling my dreams and making my life all about me–-about choosing what’s best for me and jumping on every opportunity to make things happen.

This calendar represents life and how it passes so quickly, and that if we don’t take it by its horns, we’ll miss out on all the magnificent experiences we’re supposed to have.

If you understand that you’re the creator of your life, made in God’s image, here to feel the exuberance of creating your desires–watching them flourish into actual concepts, then you know that time is truly of the essence in the scheme of your physical existence.

Every day, we struggle with our beliefs. We have inner conflict about what’s right and what’s wrong. We believe that in order to feel good about ourselves, we need others to approve what we’re doing, who we should be doing it for; and we end up living our only God-given life to please others–just to feel liked. Just to feel loved. Just to feel special. So could it be true that we need the approval of others in order to feel that life is worth living? Is this the life that God gave us? To exist solely for others? Or did God put us here to experience our greatness, and to live-out our divine right to be who and what we are without the need for anyone’s approval?

At the end of the day, do you feel good about your life? About the choices you made that day? At the end of the day, do you feel relieved that an enemy spoke to you? Do you feel giddy that you got accepted by that clique of girls in your office? Do you feel exhilerated because you’re finally accepted by the hip crowd? Did you finally get on your mother-in-law’s good side and now life is perfect?

Think about this. If every area of your life is about getting someone else’s approval and acceptance, to the point where you’re not doing what your heart tells you to do, what does that mean? It means you’re giving up your beautiful, special life for others. You’re living to please them. You’re living your beautiful life the way others are telling you to–not giving yourself the love and respect that you deserve to be living your God-given life your way.

Who are you living for? Your kids? Your spouse? Your church? Your friends? If you’re not living for you–if you’re not taking care of your body, mind, spirit, soul and your needs first, you may as well not be on this planet at all. Without taking care of you, without striving to fulfill your purpose and the freedom to express your individuality, then you are truly not living in the name of God. YOU must always come first. You have a life meant only for you, just as your friends have their lives meant for them.

If you don’t live for you, then don’t complain. Your days are numbered. Just check the calendar. Start doing for you. Live outside your protected box of structured time and go for it. Whatever that may be.

I was wondering how I was going to broach this topic. When it comes to God and the law of attraction, and free will, people get confused and leery as to whether they should contemplate the existence of these ideas. They even fear being blasphemous—that entertaining the idea of the law of attraction goes against God.

Having said that: if this subject rubs you the wrong way, then please feel free to exit from this blog. If this subject causes you stress, then please feel free to exit from this blog. And lastly. If talking about God brings up the need to debate His existence, or lack thereof, please exit from this blog. For the record, I will not debate God’s existence. I will not debate religion. And I will not debate my beliefs. So, if you’re a debater, you’re in the wrong place. This is a place for exploration and deep reflection. This is a place where hopefully, you’ll find some answers. This is a place that’s deep within my being— located in a non-linear plane whichs knows no space or time, nor bars or walls. This place is my mind. So you’re either willing to listen or free to go. It’s all good.

Moving on . . .

If you’ve read my previous articles, then you know I’m an advocate for the law of attraction. I’ve been studying the mind for more than half my life. Does that make me an expert? It does . . . in my world. But I don’t want to come off as a snooty know-it-all. Becoming an expert in any field is based on one’s willingness and perception TO know it all. Everyone is a know-it-all when it comes to their own life. Indeed they are. No person can tell you more about you then you. When it comes to you, you are an expert; hence, so is everyone else, including me. The only difference that may exist between you and me is that I go to tremendous lengths to find answers, and I don’t stop until I get them. Which is something that benefits anyone who’ll listen. Again, I’m not tooting my horn. I’m just stating a fact.

Hundreds of geniuses have written articles concerning their experiences with God and the spirit world. They’ve documented their findings in an effort to help man achieve his purpose—in order for him to reach his spiritual evolution. These masters, dating back thousands’ of years, before Jesus and even before Buddha, knew about God and man’s direct connection to Him. They’ve transcended their earthly ego in order to find God. They knew about the law of God, which simply put is: we are made in His image, and included in that image is his ability to create. (I’m stating a line from Master of the Realm–a true story I wrote of how I connected with the spirit world.)

After going through my own spiritual evolutional metamorphosis and coming to the conclusion that we are made in God’s image, including His ability to create, and then after having spirits lead me to study what I was told, only to find out that the greatest minds in the history of mankind said the very same thing, well, that was good enough for me. Of course, I just didn’t let it drop there. I’ve been talking to God every day of my life, asking a gazillion questions about Him, about me and Him, and about the laws which represent Him: such as the law of gravity; the law of cause and effect; the law of attraction; the law of abundance, and so forth. These laws aren’t some hokey-pokey nonsense created to pacify man’s reasoning. These laws aren’t some analogy to justify man’s iniquities. Heck, no! These laws ARE GOD, through and through; therefore, they must be studied and applied by us–those who are made in His image. So, it’s like this:

If God is everything—the universes, the planets, the beings on those planets, the animals, the skies, the oceans, the vegetation, the rock and clay, and all filament, AND if all these attributes are in perfect harmony, each being what they are, doing what they’re supposed to be doing, existing with each other, moving with the flow, in perfect timing, in sync, then that means that God must be a part of them, or even perhaps, HE is them.

AND

If He is them, then that means that He is us and we are Him; each given the ability to create anything we want. It’s not blasphemous to state: I AM GOD. We are God, here on earth, in the physical. And as God, we have what’s called free will. You know this. You know you can pick and dismiss anything in your life. That’s free will. So, if we can pick and dismiss all things in our existence, and if we are made in God’s image, that must mean that God is free will.

So . . .

If God is free will, and we are made in God’s image, that means that we can create whatever we want. That means that we can pick and dismiss what we want. That means that we can be what we want. If God is free will then that means He will not stop you from creating what you want because YOU are made in His image and given the freedom to create whatever it is that YOU want to create. And if you know about the law of attraction—ENERGY VIBRATION SEEKS ITS LIKENESS OR EQUIVALENT, then you understand that . . .

The law of attraction exists, and it does. And if we are the creators of our worlds, which we are, and if we’re made in God’s image, which we are, and if free will is a part of it is, then that means: GOD WILL NOT STOP CATASTROPHES, which you’ve created. HE WILL NOT STOP POVERTY, which you subconsciously created. HE WILL NOT STOP PAIN AND HEARTACHE, which you created by picking and choosing your desires and battles. DO YOU GET ME?

God has given YOU free will. He won’t interfere . . . UNLESS YOU CHOOSE HIM.

What if . . .

God goes either way? What if He’s here–deep within us, but stays away if we don’t ask for help? If He’s free will, then He’s waiting to be called upon. He’s waiting for us to pick and choose all good things. He’s the law of attraction, who will not stop what you’re subconsciously searching for. So, why are you attracting such catastrophies and heartache? It’s your thinking and core beliefs. Combine it with free will, and guess what? God is not to blame. YOU are to blame.

People want to know why the world is so wrong–why their lives are messed-up, and why God has forsaken them. I’m here to tell you that God is divine and pure love, and if you’re not looking for Him, if you’re not seeking love, if you’re not practicing picking and choosing love, then free will is gonna costya.

I have ideas. I have insight. I ask questions. I seek answers. I want more. I want to rise above life’s chaos and bullshit and live the best life I can. The big question is . . . do you?

Learn about the law of attraction. Learn about your mind and it’s power. Learn what you are. What else is possible should become your mantra.

Life sure has its ways of messing with our heads, doesn’t it? One minute everything is going great–according to plan, and the next minute, it’s spiraling out of control. Somehow, things got screwed up. We’ve got problems with work, with friends, with our family . . . and let’s not forget money. What is it about life that leads us up and down that crazy path of uncertainty?

For most people, when life gets crazy and fills our heads with fears and negativity, we panic. We think back to what we could have done wrong, and we look for that negative “thing” that caused us all this grief. But I’m here to tell you that you didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t say anything that shouldn’t have been said. You didn’t react any other way than how you should have reacted. In other words, EVERYTHING you did, whether you think it was negative or not, was what you were supposed to do at that moment in time.

Now, I know what I’ve just said must sound totally insane and illogical, but I promise you, it’s not. Every little part of your life, every intricate detail of your being, every single speck of thought that you have, you have for a purpose, AND IT’S YOUR PURPOSE, AND RESPONSIBILITY, TO UNDERSTAND this very fact so that you could learn what’s good for your spirit in order to achieve total enlightenment.

So what exactly does this mean? It means that from the time you enter the physical world, until the time you exit the physical world, the ups and downs, the slings and arrows, were all a part of the lessons which your soul arranged prior to your birth. Yes, your soul arranged for these ups and downs to happen. If you can believe that you’ve planned out your life’s journey before you came into the physical world, and if you can let yourself play with the idea that perhaps your life, with all its struggles, was your own idea and choice, then you’re on your way to living the life you’ve always wanted. But how does this help you achieve the life you’ve always dreamed of having? It’s quite simple. YOU ARE NOT AT ANYONE’S MERCY.

It sounds almost contradictory if you think about it, but let me take this a step further to clarify what I mean. We plan our charted course before we come to the physical world, and the reason is so that we can feel ourselves; to actualize our desires and watch them manifest into tangible by-products of our imaginations: in other words, we come to the physical world to create, and to express that which we can’t in the spiritual realm. BUT, and here’s where it gets a little tricky–we, as creations of God, have free will, and having free will means that we can pick battles, dismiss our battles, or create new battles. We plan it all out before we’re born, but once we enter the physical world, we’re at the mercy of our surroundings up until the age of seven. All the information of who we really are is lost once we’re exposed to others’ thoughts and beliefs–and when I say others’, I’m referring to our parents.

Once we’re born, we aren’t able to negate the thoughts and beliefs of others. We aren’t physically and mentally equipped to do so. Everything we hear and see and feel is absorbed and set deep into our subconscious minds. Now here’s where free will comes in. Once we reach adulthood, it’s our purpose to find ourselves. It’s our purpose to deliberately seek answers. Yes, our paths have been set, but it’s up to us to figure it out; to reach deep within when the going gets rough, and to find out what our purpose is. It’s up to us to make the decision if we want to be at the mercy of others’ or if we want to take our lives into our own hands and ask God to guide us back to our charted paths.

So, where do thoughts come in to play? When we’re little, our thoughts are arranged by how we perceive life, and how we perceive life, all depends on what our parents have taught us. These thoughts, which we then expand on, is where free will takes over. We are not at the mercy of our thoughts. We can change them at any time. We are creators who use thoughts to create. It’s up to us to learn the facts of who we really are so that we can pick and choose our thoughts in order to create the life we want– in order to make our journeys the best we can make them.

It’s all about free will and learning that you are the ultimate creator who is NOT at anyone’s mercy. You have the choice of believing what you want. You have the choice of dismissing what others tell you. Belief is in the eye of the beholder, and what you believe is all that matters. Everyone’s thoughts and beliefs are different and you don’t have to believe anything that goes against you. If the thought feels good then just know it’s an absolute truth that resonates with your soul. And if the thought doesn’t feel good, then just know that it’s a lie and goes against your soul. Just follow what feels good to you, and you’ll be on track. DON’T LISTEN TO OTHERS!!!!!!! You are your own person with your own spirit and soul.

This is information that you may not want to believe or accept. But I’m telling you that if you will at least be open to learning more, you will absolutely take control of your life. You have choices. You always did and you always will.

Listen, life is nuts, but there’s hope. God is good. WE ARE NOT AT ANYONE’S MERCY. We have thoughts, and we have the power to think what we want and to dismiss what we want. Be a leader. Listen to your gut.

This is a rerun–Please take a read while I write this week’s blog. OR just come back during the week. Catch-up with you later 🙂

I thought that today, Friday October 24, 2008, I would take time and read some other people’s blogs–you know, to see what’s happening and to see how they write. Hey, I’m a writer, and this is what I do. I’ve read some awesome viewpoints, and I’ve read some poorly written blogs that had great ideas and content, but were grammatical bombs.

Here’s one person’s blog which I found very note worthy, and if you have the chance, you should read it. I’m going to put the link right here where your iddy, biddy finger can just tap the mouse. This blog is written by Susan Loone. Check it out. Police arrest 6 year old

Also, a note worthy read is an article by James Pinkerton–yes, another Obama masterpiece. Talk about the existence of the devil. Wow! Check it out here FOX WORTHY READ

So I’m off now to scout more good reads. In the meantime, if you have a blog worth reading, hook me up. Hugs!